1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a modified food-slicing shoe for a slicing system that provides for the commercial production of folded or curly food snack chip products that resemble pencil shavings. A standard interchangeable food product slicing shoe and its blade are modified to produce shaped slices, which when fried provide a chip product with enhanced crunchiness and texture.
2. Description of Related Art
There are a number of methods for slicing food products as a pre-processing step to producing food products in the industry. Various machines and methods have been manufactured for the commercial production of ready-to-eat food products, such as potato or other vegetable or fruit chips, to produce chips of a variety of textures and sizes to appeal to the different preferences of consumers.
One such machine is a centrifugal type slicer, such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,824 to Jacko et al., which is directed to “a cutting head for slicing a food product.” Jacko et al. describes a slicing machine typically used to cut raw produce, usually in the form of whole potatoes, into slices to create, for example, potato chips. As seen in FIG. 1, depicting the prior art, potatoes are fed through a feed hopper 10 onto an impeller 14 with inwardly extending partitions, which is surrounded by a stationary slicing head assembly 12. A motor (not pictured) rotates the impeller 14 via a gear box 16, creating a centrifugal force that causes the potatoes to move outwardly against the partitions and the inner surface of the slicing head assembly. As further detailed in FIGS. 2 and 3, the slicing head assembly includes a series of slicing shoes with cutting blades 22 commonly referred to as slicing shoes. The slicing shoe consists of a casting 20 having a flat blade 22 attached with bolts 26. As the product passes by the cutting blades of the slicing shoes, potato slices are quickly produced and passed on through a chute 18 for further processing into a ready-to-eat potato snack chips.
A centrifugal slicing machine, such as the one disclosed in Jacko et al., is manufactured and sold by Urschel Laboratories, Inc of Valparaiso, Ind. These machines allow for the production of generally flat slices which may or may not contain some texture along the surface. For example, a flat blade produces a flat slice, while a blade having a number of waves or ridges along its cutting edge produces either a wavy or ridged chip, respectively. However, the blades currently used remain straight and elongated, confined to the same plane, producing generally flat potato slices.
Market studies have shown that consumers crave more variety in terms of shape. Specifically, studies show that consumers often desire the folded or curled shapes produced when products are sliced by hand. Consequently, there is a need for a method and apparatus for commercially production of snack chips having folded or curled shapes that more closely resemble hand-made chips, which are made by batch processes. Further, there is a need to provide nonplanar shapes, while utilizing currently available commercial equipment such as the centrifugal type slicing machines. There is also a need for a modified slicing shoe capable of providing more variety with regard to the shapes of ready-to-eat snack products. Accordingly, there is a need for modification of the straight (or flat) slicing head blades and their corresponding slicing shoes presently available.